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j|jHE CITY OF TACOMA ^-^__ 




Is the West 
located at 
offers oppo 
to those of 
luth, half a 
by judicious 
and the san 


em Terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
the Head of Navigation on Puget Sound, and 
rtunities for Investments in Real Estate equal 
ered by Minneapolis, St. Paul, Denver and Du- 
score of years ago. Fortunes have been made 
investments placed near those and other cities, 
le experience can be repeated in Tacoma. 

"A 


- 


LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 




She]f._.T J ir_L3 


UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 


* 





tK COMA 


AND 


• 


* 




^^ A>* COPYRIGHT V\ ' 

( JAN 16 1889/ J 


. : QHen (2. 


(flagon, 


PybhsRsr, 


TACOMA, WASH. 


TER. 



COPYRIGHT 1888. 



><3@©m<3 ®nd Wimm\\ty. 



^"ACOMA has well been called the " City of 
\X/ Destiny," for never in the history of our 
great republic has the finger of destiny so 
unerringly pointed to the location of a large com- 
mercial and manufacturing metropolis as it did to 
the shores of Commencement bay when the North- 
ern Pacific located here the terminus of its main 
' line on Puget sound. In its history, years have 
witnessed more life and growth, more progress in 
business and wealth, and the creation of more per- 
manent values of property, than decades in the 
history of older and admittedly prosperous cities 
of the eastern states. Eight years ago, at the be- 
ginning of the present decade, Tacoma had a pop- 
ulation of but seven hundred and twenty souls, its 
streets were ungraded and full of stumps, and its 
business blocks were few and of but the cheapest 
of frame structures. What mighty things have 
been wrought in the brief time which has since 
elapsed ! Now it has many miles of graded streets, 

r'3 



of water and gas mains, of telegraph, telephone 
and electric light wires and street railways, solid 
blocks of brick and stone business structures, large 
and commodious opera house, public schools, sem- 
inaries and academies, elegant hotels, large factor- 
ies, great and expanding docks, warehouses and 
shipping facilities, a taxable property of $7,902,000 
and a population of twenty thousand souls. It is 
this Tacoma of to-day, bustling, vigorous, full of 
life and business, and advancing with prodigious 
strides, which is treated of in the following pages 
of engravings and descriptive matter. These en- 
gravings, elegant and artistic as they are, fall far 
short of doing justice to a city whose prosperity, 
vitality and progressiveness it is impossible to con- 
vey to paper. They are the Tacoma of to-day, but 
will be almost as unlike the great city ten years 
from now which will bear that name, as they are 
unlike the board shanties which occupied this site 
eight years ago. 



Kc - IH7C 




PACIFIC AVE., SOUTH FROM NINTH ST.-TACOMA. 



TACOMA'S NEW GRAND OPERA HOUSE. 



fACOMA has hitherto lacked one most essen- 
tial feature of a city — an opera house — and 
for this reason has been often denied the 
pleasure of listening to some of the great dramatic 
stars who have visited the coast. It will not be 
long before this will be remedied, as the most ele- 
gant opera house north of San Francisco is now in 
course of erection. Several of the public spirited 
citizens of this place recently organized the Taco- 
ma Opera House Company, with a capital stock of 
$100,000.00, for the purpose of building an opera 
house such as the growing needs of the city re- 
quire. Plans were drawn for an elegant building 
to cost $75,000.00, and this is now in course of con- 
struction on the corner of Ninth and 0. streets. 
The first story is of stone and the remainder of 
brick and terra cotta. It will have accommoda- 
tions for several stores on the ground floor, and 



for a number of offices up stairs, and will be com- 
pleted early in the spring of 1889. In all its ap- 
pointments it will be elegant, and will have a seat- 
ing capacity of twelve hundred. The stage set- 
tings, dressing rooms, mechanical appliances and 
all the accessories of a theatre will be of the best 
pattern, and the opera chairs of the latest design. 
From the engraving of the exterior given on the 
opposite page, it will be seen that this structure 
will be one of the most imposing and ornamental 
architectural features of the city. It is located 
convenient to the hotels, the business portion of 
the city and the street car lines. With such an 
opera house as this, and with a population of twen- 
ty thousand people to give them patronage, the 
best attractions in the United States will be drawn 
to Tacoma as one of the regular " show towns " of 
the grand transcontinental circuit. 




TACOMA THEATRE. 



HOTELS OF THE TERMINAL CITY. 



^^OURISTS unhesitatingly declare that in this 
vL/ city they find the only really adequate and 
enjoyable hotel accommodations to be had 
on the Pacific coast north of San Francisco, and to 
this one fact is due much of the popularity of the 
city spread abroad by those who have enjoyed its 
hospitalities. Recognizing the necessity for such 
an institution, the Tacoma Land Company erected 
in 1884 the large and handsome stone and brick 
hotel building shown in the engraving on the op- 
posite page. It stands on the bluff above the 
water front, overlooking the bay, river, valley, foot- 
hills and mountains. From the veranda and lawn 
a grand landscape may be seen, the great snowy 
mass of Mount Tacoma standing out in bold relief 
against the sky. The possession of such a house 
of entertainment, elegantly furnished and conduc- 
ted in first class style by Mr. W. D. Tyler, a most 
courteous and able manager, renders the city a fa- 



vorite summer resort and headquarters for those 
who desire to spend a few weeks viewing the grand 
scenery of the sound. On another page is given 
an engraving of the new and elegant Hotel Fife, 
a large five-story brick structure, recently complet- 
ed at a cost of $125,000.00. It contains one hun- 
dred and twenty-six rooms, and is supplied with 
all the modern conveniences of gas, water, electric 
bells, elevator, etc. Hotel Fife is most elegantly 
furnished, and is conducted on the European plan. 
Hotel Rochester, recently erected on Tocoma ave- 
nue (see engraving on another page), is a large 
brick edifice, four stories high, and cost $75,000.00. 
It occupies a commanding site, and is designed 
for a family hotel, all its rooms being en suite, with 
bath, electric light and water. It is heated by 
steam, and has its own electric light plant, laundry 
and Turkish bath. A number of smaller hotels 
add to the city's accommodations for strangers. 




"THETACOMA'-TACOMA. 



GRAIN SHIPMENTS AND FLOURING MILLS. 



r<»)ESS than a year has passed since Taconia en- 
XI tered regularly into the shipping of grain 
and flour to foreign markets, though practi- 
cally this business began the present year, after 
the completion of the tunnel through the moun- 
tains. During the year ending June 30th, 1888, 
there were shipped from this port eight hundred 
and thirty-eight thousand two hundred and thirty- 
three bushels of grain, and the estimated quantity 
for the current fiscal year is four million five hun- 
dred thousand bushels, requiring a grain fleet of 
sixty vessels, being an average of one cargo dis- 
patched every six days. Owing to the fact that 
vessels can enter Puget sound more cheaply than 
the Columbia river, and can discharge and receive 
cargo and get to sea again cheaper, charters are 
much lower here than at Portland, and the price 
of wheat proportionately higher. For this reason 
the wheat along the line of the Northern Pacific, 
which, before the completion of the road over the 
mountains, was shipped to Portland, now comes to 
Tacoma. As the Northern Pacific and its branch- 



es and connecting lines ramify the entire wheat 
region east of the Cascades, where twenty million 
bushels will be produced this year, it can be seen 
that an estimate of four million five hundred thou- 
sand bushels for the present year is not a large 
one. "Wheat warehouses, with a capacity of five 
hundred thousand bushels, have been built on the 
water front, and are being doubled in size. The 
Northern Pacific Elevator Co. is erecting a four- 
story elevator, with a capacity of a million bush- 
els, and has elevators and warehouses at all the 
principal shipping points in the interior. The only 
steam flouring mill on Puget sound is located here. 
Not only is this port superior to Portland as a gen- 
eral shipping point for grain and flour, but it has 
special advantages in the China trade, which con- 
sumes twenty-five hundred barrels per month of 
Pacific coast flour. Recognizing this, gentlemen 
engaged largely in manufacturing flour in Oregon 
are erecting an immense mill with a daily capacity 
of one thousand barrels, which will begin grind- 
ing next season. 



COAL AND IRON RESOURCES. 



eOAL shipments from the port of Tacoma av- 
erage twenty-seven thousand tons a month, 
being the product of mines situated in the 
region immediately tributary to the city and along 
the line of the Northern Pacific. These mines are 
owned and operated by the Carbon Hill Coal Co., 
the Wilkeson Coal and Coke Co., the Tacoma Coal 
Co., the South Prairie Coal Co., all in the Puyal- 
lup region, and the Bucoda Coal Co., south of the 
city. Nearly all these shipments go by sail and 
steamer to the San Francisco market. The Dur- 
ham coal mines, sixty miles east of Tacoma, are 
just being opened, and provision is being made for 
a daily output of three hundred tons. This is fine 
coking coal, and will be used by the great iron 
smelters to be erected at Cle Elum. The mine is 
the property of the Pacific Investment Co. At 



Roslyn, on the east side of the mountains, are the 
mines of the Northern Pacific Coal Co., whose 
headquarters are in this city. Inexhaustible in 
quantity, and much of it making the finest quality 
of coke, the coal deposits about Tacoma must build 
up a very large city here. Iron ore of a superior 
quality lies in immense and easily accessible de- 
posits almost at the city's gates. Coal, coke and 
iron, with limestone in abundance, suggest the 
great manufacturing possibilities, to take advan- 
tage of which an immense enterprise is already on 
foot, in the form of a gigantic iron smelting plant, 
to be erected at Cle Elum, near the Roslyn mines, 
by the Moss Bay Iron Co. , one of the largest insti- 
tutions of its kind in England, and the huge re- 
duction works soon to be operated at Tacoma by a 
company recently organized for that purpose. 




HOTEL FIFE-TACOMA. 



LUMBER INTERESTS OF TACOMA. 



(CLUMBER is one of the chief products of Puget 
J-X sound, and in the lumbering industry Taco- 
ma leads all other cities on the sound, or on 
the Pacific coast. Mill capacity has more than 
doubled the present season. In January four mills 
were cutting four hundred thousand feet per day ; 
since then five new mills have been built and two 
of the old ones have increased their capacity, one 
of them, the Tacoma Mill Co., to five hundred 
thousand feet, making now a total output of eight 
hundred and thirty-five thousand feet. This will 
be greatly increased in a short time, as one of the 
mills, owned by the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber 
Co., is credited with only fifteen thousand feet, and 
is but a temporary concern engaged in sawing tim- 
bers for an immense mill which will be turning 
out five hundred thousand feet per day in a few 
weeks. Another new mill will cut one hundred 
thousand feet, and still another thirty-five thou- 
sand, while the capacity of another will be increas- 
ed. Thus, by the spring of 1889, Tacoma will have 



A eleven mills cutting an aggregate of more than one 

and one-half million feet of lumber per day. On 
the opposite page is an engraving of the Pacific 
Mill, built this year, and one of the most complete 
establishments of its kind in the world, with a ca- 
pacity of three hundred thousand feet a day. The 
larger mills are all supplied with shingle and lath 
machines, and millions of lath and cedar shingles 
are made daily. The output of shingles has quad- 
rupled within the past year. Sash and door facto- 
ries have increased in number and capacity, their 
product finding a market on the sound and along 
the line of the Northern Pacific. Lumber is ship- 
ped from the mills direct to California, Chili, Peru, 
Central America, Sandwich islands, Australia, Ja- 
pan and China, and ship timbers, spars and masts 
are sent to Europe and the Atlantic coast of the 
United States. Often a dozen ships are in port at 
one time loading lumber, and the scene along the 
docks is a busy one. By rail lumber is sent as far 
east as Denver and Omaha. 




THE PACIFIC MILL,TACOMA. 



LOGGING ON PUGET SOUND. 



|UGET SOUND holds a leading position in the 
United States in the magnitude of its logging 
operations. The quantity of logs put into 
the water in 1888 was four hundred and thirty-four 
million five hundred thousand feet. Logging is 
carried on to the best advantage in the summer 
time, and logging railroads, sometimes several 
miles in length, upon which locomotives draw cars 
of logs from the interior to the sound, or to streams 
connecting with it, have, been built by a number 
of companies at great expense. In the huge size 
of the timber, the logger of the west finds an ob- 
stacle to contend with that the logger of the Mich- 
igan pineries does not encounter. Logs of six feet 
in diameter are frequent, while they occasionally 



much exceed that figure. Ox teams generally con- 
sist of six pairs of lusty animals, which are used 
to drag the logs to the railroad or stream. In cut- 
ting down this huge timber, the choppers use a 
novel device to avoid cutting through the swell 
near the ground. A notch several inches deep is 
cut in the side of the tree, and the end of a spring 
board having an iron shoe, is put into the notch 
in such a way that it is bound fast by the weight 
of the chopper when he stands on it. If the first 
notch is not high enough, another is cut higher up. 
By this method the stumps left standing are from 
six to twelve feet high. When the tree is very 
large, two choppers work at a time, as shown in 
the engraving on the opposite page. 



GENERAL OFFICES OF THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



[T the edge of the bluff overlooking the har- 
bor, and at the head of the grade leading 
down to the water front, stands the elegant, 
commodious building used for the general offices 
of the Northern Pacific. It is a most substantial 
structure of brick and iron, cemented on the ex- 
terior walls, having a basement, three stories and 
an attic, with asbestos felt under each floor, and 
was completed in the fall of 1888 at a total cost of 
$125,000.00. In all, the building contains fifty- 
three office and store rooms, and nineteen commo- 
dious fire-proof vaults, one being connected with 
every suite of rooms. It is heated by hot water, 
and the interior finishing and furnishing is very 



H elegant and ornamental. In addition to the offi- 

ces of the Northern Pacific, the building will be 
occupied by the western office of the land depart- 
ment of the N. P. R. R., managed by Mr. Paul 
Schulze, the Tacoma Land Company, Mr. Isaac 
W. Anderson, manager, the Northern Pacific Coal 
Company, and the Northern Pacific Express Com- 
pany. This elegant and imposing structure, occu- 
pying such a commanding site, will always be one 
of the most striking architectural features of the 
city, proclaiming to the world the confidence the 
officers of the Northern Pacific have in the future 
of the great city springing up at its western ter- 
minus. 




GENERAL OFFICE BUILDING N.P.R.R. 



TiCOMA'S FINE BUSINESS BLOCKS. 



i OT the least of the marvels of Tacoma's his- 
tory is the great business blocks that have 
been erected, converting a forest wild into a 
city of brick and stone in less than a decade. A 
suggestion of the massive appearance of the build- 
ings on a portion of one of the streets is given by 
the first engraving in this volume, while on other 
pages are presented engravings of a number of 
fine business blocks but recently erected. Here is 
located the only chamber of commerce building 
north of San Francisco. It is a substantial three- 
story stone and brick structure, and in addition to 
the board of trade rooms contains commodious of- 
fices and stores. Union block, on the corner of 
Eleventh street and Pacific avenue, is a three-story 
and basement brick structure, erected by Cogswell 
& Son and John S. Baker. It is one hundred by 
one hundred and twenty feet in size, contains large 
stores and office rooms and cost $55,000. Sprague 
Buildings is the title of a large brick block four 
stories high, and extending three hundred and 



A eighteen feet on Pacific avenue, erected by Gen. J. 

W. Sprague. It cost .$75,000.00, and contains four 
stores for wholesale business, each occupying four 
floors and basement. Germania hall is a frame 
structure sixty-six by one hundred and twenty 
feet in size, erected by the Germania society, on E 
street, between Thirteenth and Fourteenth, at a 
cost of $10,000. It contains a large hall for amuse- 
ments and meetings, with other rooms and base- 
ment. Ouimette block is a handsome three-story 
brick structure on Pacific avenue. Mason block 
stands on A street, one block from the " Tacoma," 
and is a handsome three-story brick edifice, with 
St. Louis pressed brick front and Bellingham bay 
blue stone trimmings. It contains the post office, 
express office, a store and many elegant office 
rooms. The buildings specially mentioned are 
only those recently completed. Many other fine 
business structures adorn the business thorough- 
fares and testify to the prosperity and solid busi- 
ness interests of the city. 



STREETS, WATER WORKS AND ELECTRIC LIGHTS. 



©LECTRICITY lights the business thorough- 
V«J fares and many of the stores, while gas illu- 
minates other portions of the city. The gas 
works were built in 1884, and the electric light 
plant, now having twenty miles of wire, was put 
in by a responsible company in 1887. There is, 
also, an excellent telephone service, with an ex- 
tended circuit reaching Puyallup valley. In its 
water works it is especially fortunate. The system 
was built in 1884, at a cost of ,$300,000.00, and con- 
sists of eleven miles of mains, supplied with pure 
water by an aqueduct ten miles in length. The 
lower portion of the city is supplied by direct pres- 
sure from the reservoir, two hundred and sixty-two 
feet above the harbor, while the upper levels are 



served by powerful Holly pumps. A splendidly 
equipped fire department gives the city ample pro- 
tection from the destroying element. In the mat- 
ter of the improvement of its streets the city has 
done more to show its progressive and metropoli- 
tan character than in any other way. The lead- 
ing thoroughfares are macadamized, and through- 
out the entire city streets are graded and in good 
condition. There are thirty-five miles of graded 
streets and fifty miles of sidewalk within the city 
limits. A horse car line runs the entire length of 
Pacific avenue from the water front, and a motor 
line runs out to Division avenue and Tacoma ave- 
nue, and along the latter both north and south for 
a long distance. 




0. 




MASON BLOCK-TACOMA. 



TACOMA AS A MANUFACTURING CITY. 



T tTHENEVER so young a city as Tacoma is men- 
\XJ tioned it is generally spoken of as a pros- 
pective metropolis, whose present growth is 
based largely upon the future. Great as Tacoma's 
future is sure to be, its present condition has not 
been reached by discounting it, nor is its great 
prosperity due to large drafts on future industries. 
It has now many establishments which employ a 
large number of hands, pay many thousands of 
dollars to workmen monthly, and turn out a man- 
ufactured product valued at millions of dollars an- 
nually. One of these branches of industry is the 
saw mills and sash factories spoken of elsewhere, 
in which Tacoma is one of the leading cities of the 
world. Besides this there are a furniture factory, 
iron foundry, machine shops, flouring mills, car 
shops and a number of smaller industries. The 
car shops of the Northern Pacific are located here, 
and give employment to a large number of hands. 
The huge reduction works being erected here, the 



flouring mills, and the gigantic iron smelting en- 
terprise at Cle Elum, have been mentioned on 
other pages. The only coking ovens on the coast 
are located near the city and are owned by Taco- 
ma parties. These enterprises are enough to ac- 
count for the prosperous condition of the city, yet 
they are but r n index of the manufacturing which 
will be done here in a few years. Situated in the 
midst of coal, iron, limestone, and hard and soft 
wood timber, all of unlimited quantity and supe- 
rior quality ; occupying the position of actual and 
operating terminus of a great transcontinental rail- 
road, which renders tributary to it a vast empire 
producing cereals, stock, fruit, hops and other ag- 
ricultural products in abundance, and is the outlet 
for a dozen of the richest mining districts in the 
west ; and being already the largest shipping port 
on the greatest inland harbor on the Pacific coast, 
its future as a manufacturing city is assured beyond 
all question. 



MOUNT TACOMA, THE CASCADE MONARCH. 



(EARING its great mass of snow and ice far 
above the surrounding mountains, Mt. Ta- 
coma is the most commanding object in ev- 
ery Puget sound landscape, and is never seen to 
better advantage than from the streets of Tacoma. 
Its height is fourteen thousand four hundred and 
forty-four feet, exceeding that of any other of the 
numerous snow peaks of the Cascades, and in 
beauty of form and location it stands pre-eminent 
the monarch of the mountains. Captain George 
Vancouver, the discoverer and original explorer of 
Puget sound, in May, 1792, named this mountain 
" Rainier," in honor of Rear Admiral Rainier, of 
the English navy, but the people of Puget sound, 
who can see no reason why the original and char- 
acteristic names given such objects by the aborig- 



ines should be changed, have discarded that title 
and restored the Indian name " Tacoma." It is a 
beautiful name and most appropriate, meaning 
" near to heaven." Ascents of the mountain are 
very frequently made by tourists, arrangements for 
which can be made in Tacoma. The view from its 
summit is grand beyond description, and the wild 
and rugged nature of its glaciers, gorges, canyons, 
and rocky precipices give the mountain climber all 
the excitement he can reasonably desire. Moun- 
tain sheep and goats are hunted amid its glaciers 
by the venturesome sportsman, and the forests of 
the surrounding mountains are full of game that 
will try the nerve and skill of the most experienced 
hunter, no matter from what quarter of the globe 
he may come. 




MT. TACOMA, WASHINGTON TERRITORY. HIGHT 14440 FEET. 



REDUCTION OF ORES OF THE NORTHWEST. 



Tif EARLY the output of ores in the mines of 
jtJ Oregon, Washington and Northern Idaho is 
increasing. Not only are the older mines 
enlarging their yield, but new ones are constantly 
being developed. New mineral discoveries are 
made frequently and the number of mining dis- 
tricts increases every year. The remarkable mines 
being developed in the Cceur d'Alene, Okanogan, 
Colville, Pine Creek, Cracker Creek and other dis- 
tricts, have placed this region in the front rank of 
mining interests in the United States, and point to 
a future of unbroken prosperity for many years. 
At some point so situated as to reach each of these 
districts with almost equal facility, and where all 
the essentials for the reduction of ores, such as 
coal, iron, wood, limestone, etc., exist or can be 
cheaply procured, will be established immense re- 
duction works. Such a point is Tacoma, and a 



project is well advanced to inaugurate this indus- 
try on a large scale. A company has been incor- 
porated with $1,000,000.00 capital, and ground has 
been secured for the extensive buildings required, 
the construction of which is now well under way. 
The plant will have a daily capacity of two hun- 
dred tons at first, but this will be enlarged after 
the business is well established. President and 
chief promoter of this enterprise is Mr. Dennis 
Ryan, proprietor of the famous Hotel Ryan, of St. 
Paul, and extensively engaged in mining enter- 
prises. The marvelously rich ores of Alaska will 
be drawn upon largely, and will find here their 
nearest market. All the indications point to Ta- 
coma as the head of the mining industry in this 
region, not only because of its reduction works, 
but because of the large investments its capitalists 
are making in mining properties. 




SPRAGUE BUILDINGS -TACOMA. 



PARKS, DRIVES AND AQUATICS. 



PARKS are the adjuncts of cities of more ma- 
ture years than this young giant of Puget 
sound, but nature has provided here that 
which many other cities acquire only by the out- 
lay of much money and labor through a series of 
years. Lying south of the city, and but a short 
distance beyond its present limits, is a beautiful, 
level, gravelly plain, studded with oak trees, in 
the midst of which are lakes of clear, sparkling 
water. American lake, shown in the engraving 
opposite, where it forms the foreground for a beau- 
tiful landscape, of which Mount Tacoma is the 
central figure, attracts hundreds of pleasure seek- 
ers. Its waters teem with trout, and its shining 
surface offers both the oarsman and the yachts- 
man an opportunity to indulge in their favorite 
amusement. The drive from the city to the park 



is one of keen enjoyment to one whose eye drinks 
in the beauties of nature, and who delights to fill 
his lungs with the pure air, fragrant with the odoi 
of forest and mountain. Other drives, in and 
about the city offer the visitor exhilarating pleas- 
ure and beautiful landscapes. Not the least of the 
enjoyments of the tourist temporarily sojourning 
in the city is the row or sail on the placid waters 
of the harbor, or the more exciting sport of troll- 
ing for salmon in the bay. As many as a dozen 
fine salmon, from five to fifteen pounds in weight, 
are often caught in a few hours in the early morn- 
ing. A boat house stands at the water's edge, 
where row and sail boats may be procured, and 
morning and evening and on moonlight nights at 
a late hour, these little craft dart over the bay with 
their loads of pleasure seekers. 




HUIi^iiMiA .%JLJlLf^ 





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THE NATURAL PARK AROUND AMERICAN LAKE, NEAR TACOMA. 



EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND CHURCHES. 



(g) DUCATION in its higher forms was one of the 
tJ first thoughts of the intelligent and liberal 
men who founded Tacoma, and in this mat- 
ter Mr. C. B. Wright, formerly president, and still 
a director, of the Northern Pacific railroad, has 
taken the lead. The Annie Wright Seminary, 
named in honor of the daughter of Mr. Wright, 
was endowed by him with $50,000.00, and was 
erected in 1884 at a cost of $35,000.00, with funds 
raised in the east by Rt. Rev. J. A. Paddock, D.D. 
It stands at the corner of Tacoma and Division 
avenues, on two irregular blocks of ground donat- 
ed by the Tacoma Land Company. It is under the 
charge of Mrs. L. H. Wells, principal, assisted by 
a corps of fifteen instructors, and has an attend- 
ance of one hundred and thirty-five young ladies. 
Washington College was also endowed by Mr. 
Wright with $50,000.00, and was erec.ed with 
funds raised by Bishop Paddock in Tacoma and in 
the east. It occupies a commanding site donated 
by the Tacoma Land Co., facing eastward upon 



Tacoma avenue. It is under the charge of D. S. 
Pulford, A.M., head master, assisted by E. P. 
Young, A.M., and a complete corps of instructors. 
Both of these institutions are Episcopal in their 
origin and management. The Methodists have 
selected Tacoma as the seat of a university to be 
under the auspices of that denomination. Large 
and valuable grounds have been donated by citi- 
zens, and buildings to cost $100,000.00 will soon 
be erected. These institutions place Tacoma far 
in the lead in educational matters in the north- 
west. The religious denominations are well rep- 
resented in the city by numerous church edifices, 
but sufficient time has not yet elapsed for the erec- 
tion of many very large or costly churches. A 
handsome stone structure is St. Luke's Memorial 
Church, erected by Mr. Wright at a cost of $25,000. 
Mention should also be made of the Fannie C. 
Paddock Memorial Hospital, dedicated to the 
memory of the wife of Bishop Paddock, who did 
such good work in founding the other institutions. 



THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS OF TACOMA. 



•"■pi LITE as much praise should be bestowed 
\&c upon the citizens of Tacoma for the excel- 
lent public school system they have cre- 
ated as for the wonders they have achieved in the 
construction of a substantial city in so brief a pe- 
riod. Public schools have been recognized as one 
of the fundamental necessities of society through- 
out the west generally, and wherever the nucleus 
of a city has been planted, the public school sys- 
tem has formed part of the seed. Especially in 
Tacoma is this regard for the educational welfare 
of the rising generation exhibited in a marked de- 
gree. Six school buildings have been erected, en- 
gravings of which are given on the opposite page, 
and these will soon be inadequate to accommodate 
the children applying for admission. In 1880 but 



one hundred children attended the single school. 
By 1884 this had increased to four hundred, to five 
hundred in 1885, and now, in 1888, no less than 
fifteen hundred children are enjoying the advan- 
tages of free instruction in the six school build- 
ings. The schools are thoroughly systematized 
and graded from the primary to the high school 
department, and are under the charge of a compe- 
tent superintendent, ably assisted by a large corps 
of teachers. The enterprise, liberality and good 
citizenship displayed in thus providing promptly 
and adequately for the needs of the ever-increas- 
ing numbers of school children, is an evidence of 
the energy and intelligence of the citizens, and 
explains much that seems wonderful in the phe- 
nomenal growth of the city. 




S/AST SCHOOL. 



CENTRAL SCHOOL. 



NORTH SCHOOL. 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS -TACOM A 



EARRElL&DARMEIt ARCHITECTS. 



RAILROADS OF THE TEEMINAL CITY. 



fREAT sport was made of Tacoma's railroad 
aspirations a few years ago, but now things 
have assumed a different aspect. This city 
is now not only the theoretical, but the actual, ter- 
minus of the Northern Pacific railroad. Here are 
located the company's general offices, the offices 
of the land department, the western car shops, 
and all the docks and terminal facilities owned by 
the company on the Pacific coast. The lines of 
this road not only extend east to St. Paul, and 
thus connect with all the eastern trunk roads, but 
pass through the heart of the region whose pro- 
ducts reach market through the ports of the Pa- 
cific. All of this vast interior region is now open- 
ed to Tacoma, and trade relations are rapidly be- 
ing established. In addition to this the Portland 
branch gives access to the rich section lying south 
of the city. In addition to this line the merchants 
of Tacoma have direct connection by steamer with 
the terminus of the Canadian Pacific, and thus 
have another through route to the east. Lines 



now under construction north will connect Tacoma 
with the Canadian Pacific by rail. The extension 
to a Puget sound harbor of the Southern Pacific 
railroad, now as far north as Portland, has been 
practically announced by gentlemen connected 
with that company, and that the Union Pacific 
will also seek a Puget sound terminus is quite cer- 
tain. Both of these roads, and in fact, any road 
building north from the Columbia, west of the 
Cascades, will undoubtedly come to Tacoma. The 
Tacoma Southern is being built south from Crock- 
er, on the Northern Pacific, into a body of timber 
fifteen miles distant. This is looked upon as a link 
in a line to the Columbia. The Tacoma, Olympia 
& Chehalis Valley R. R. Co. has been incorporat- 
ed, to build a line from Gray's harbor up the Che- 
halis valley and across the Cascade mountains to 
the Columbia, with a branch running north to Ta- 
coma. This would give this city another line to 
the Inland Empire, as well as a line to Gray's 
harbor and the fertile Chehalis valley. 







'^^^^Km >^-j 






ACROSS THE SWITCHBACK FROM TACOMA. 



SWITCHBACK ON THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD. 



^ESIRING to open the Northern Pacific to trav- 
el and traffic a year earlier than was possi- 
ble if they waited for the completion of the 
huge tunnel through the Cascades, a great passage 
blasted through the mountains ninety-eight hun- 
dred and fifty feet in length, the officers decided to 
construct a line over the summit on the " switch- 
back " principle, at a cost of $300,000.00. It was 
completed early in the summer of 1887, having 
seven miles of track and an average grade of near- 
ly three hundred feet to the mile. Huge decapod 
(ten drive wheels) locomotives were built for this 
service, the most powerful ever constructed. Two 
decapods are used, one at each end of the short 
train. The bottom line of the diagram represents 
the main track at the mouth of the tunnel. The 
train moves ahead until it passes the switch S, 
and then moves backward and upward until it 
passes the next switch, thus alternating until the 



summit is gained, when it descends on the oppo- 
site side in the same manner. The general prin- 
ciple of the " switchback " is clearly shown in the 
followiDg diagram : 




Since the completion of the tunnel, early in the 
summer of 1888, the switchback has not been used 
for general traffic. The scenery of the mountains 
is enchanting, the view from the line of the switch- 
back being grand beyond description. 







ACROSS THE SWITCHBACK FROM TACOMA. 



BEAUTIFUL HOMES OF TACOMA. 



(EAUTIFUL and costly residences, occupying 
commanding sites and standing in the midst 
of green lawns, ornamented with a profusion 
of flowers and shrubs, are one of the noticeable 
features of Tacoma, and they speak of the culture 
and refinement, as well as the material prosperity 
of the people. In the topography of the ground 
upon which the city is situated, an excellent op- 
portunity is offered for elegant and sightly resi- 
dences. Kising in a gradual ascent from the busi- 
ness portion, the residence portion offers an un- 
broken view across the bay and valley to the moun- 
tains, so that 1he windows of nearly every house 
in the city command a view of the snow-crowned 
monarch of the Cascades, set in a landscape of 



wonderful beauty. Many extremely elegant and 
costly residences have been erected. Among these 
are the homes of Gen. J. W. Sprague, J. M. Buck- 
ley, Esq., J. S. Baker, Esq., Isaac W. Anderson, 
Esq., Geo. E. Atkinson, E-q., A. C. Smith, Esq., 
Allen C. Mason, Esq. and E. Pierce, Esq., engrav- 
ings of which are given on the opposite and suc- 
ceeding pages. For so young a city, and one 
whose energies have been taxed to the utmost to 
provide facilities for its expanding business, the 
number of beautiful homes is remarkable, and in- 
dicates that its people recognize the advantages 
nature has given them to build up here one of the 
most beautiful cities on the continent. They are 
accomplishing this very rapidly. 




.— rso/v £c^. TACOMA'S BEAUTIFUL HOMES. j.s.baks* ersa 



HOPS OF THE PUYALLUP VALLEY. 



"T^OPS are the leading agricultural product of the 
Fr Puget sound region, and the hop ranches are 
nearly all directly tributary to Tacoma. Pu- 
yallup valley, whose fame as a hop producing sec- 
tion has encircled the world, lies just east of the 
city, the line of the Northern Pacific passing di- 
rectly through it. Upwards of three thousand 
acres are now in vine, which yielded twenty thou- 
sand bales in 1887, and twenty-five thousand in 
1888, when an average of one thousand seven hun- 
dred pounds per acre of both old and young vines 
was secured. The superior quality of the cones, 
the freedom from pests and disease, the enormous 
yield and the rapid growth of young vines, com- 



bine to render this region foremost in the world in 
its adaptability to this special crop. Not only does 
the Puyallup valley produce hops, but other crops 
as well. Several thriving villages and numerous 
highly cultivated farms attest the prosperity of its 
people, as well as giviDg evidence of the valuable 
nature of the agricultural area immediately tribu- 
tary to Tacoma. Puyallup hops are in demand in 
Japan, Europe and the eastern states of America, 
because of their superior quality and appearance. 
In the picking season the hop fields are the scene 
of great industry, and the numerous camps of 
pickers present a pleasing picture as the train 
passes up the valley. 





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HISTORY OF TACOMA REAL ESTATE. 



/g)T COMMON expression of visitors is that " real 
\-A. estate is too high," and many decline to in- 
vest in property for that leason, only to re- 
pent not many months later when values have ad- 
vanced on all classes of property. Six years ago 
the same opinion was expressed, and the predic- 
tion was made that property values would take a 
tumble, and that the boom would collapse. Even 
in the "hard times" of 1884-5 these predictions 
were not realized. Values were fully sustained, 
and as soon as the nation began to recover from its 
financial depression, Tacoma real estate again start- 
ed upward, and is still steadily advancing. The 
lot that was " too high " at ,$50 in 1883, and again 
declared " too high " at $200 in 1886, is now worth 
$500. The same opportunities exist to-day to buy 
lots at $50 and $100 that will in a few years be 
worth ten times their present value. Property in 
residence ■ sections is a safe investment. Desir- 
able water frontage in the city is limited in amount, 



and investments in water front property can not 
fail to be profitable. The best residence portion of 
the city lies to the north and west, overlooking the 
deep water frontage and affording a fine view of 
Commencement bay, Mount Tacoma, the Cascade 
mountains and the Olympic range. The franchise 
for a street railroad down through this residence 
portion of the city is already before the city coun- 
cil for approval, and under the terms of the fran- 
chise the road must be completed within the year 
1889. The grantees in the franchise are responsi- 
ble gentlemen, who are of themselves sufficient 
guaranty that the road will be built. The increase 
in real estate values is best shown by the city as- 
sessment roll. In 1880 it was but $517,927. In 
1886 it was $4,092,119, and in two years has in- 
creased to a total of $7,902,000. There has been a 
general advance in all classes of property, and no 
matter how high it has ever seemed to be, it is 
higher now and will be still higher a year hence. 











o 
6 



COMMERCIAL ADVANTAGES OF TACOMA. 



k ANY advantages are possessed by Tacoma 
which can not fail to result in building up 
here a large commercial city. A very large 
wholesale business is already established in many 
important lines of trade, and some of the largest 
and most complete retail stores to be found on the 
Pacific coast are located here. As an index of the 
condition of trade here the banking statistics are 
valuable. There are now four national banks, one 
large private bank and a savings bank. The com- 
bined capital stock of these institutions is $630,000. 
The four national banks have $1,930,000 deposits, 
$1,892,000 discounts and $120,000 surplus and un- 
divided profits. Such a showing of banking busi- 
ness indicates a volume of trade of large propor- 
tions, and as deposits have nearly doubled during 
the past year, the growth of trade is certainly re- 
markable. Tacoma's position as the terminus of 
a great overland railway, as well as the terminal 
port on Puget sound for all local and ocean steam- 



er lines, is one that insures it an enormous jobbing 
trade throughout the entire northwest. As a port 
of shipment for the coal, lumber, grain, iron, min- 
erals and manufactured and agricultural products 
of an immense region, it must necessarily be the 
chief commercial point of the same section, and 
this is the cause of the marvelous increase in bus- 
iness during the first year after the completion of 
the railroad across the mountains. Foreign com- 
merce already seeks this port for entrance into the 
United States. The sails of a clipper ship from 
China and Japan are a common sight in the harbor, 
and will be more frequent in the future. A line of 
steamers connecting the Northern Pacific with the 
ports of China, Japan, Australia and New Zeal- 
and is one of the certainties of the not distant fu- 
ture. Having the advantage over San Francisco 
of a much shorter route to China, Tacoma, as the 
chief port on Puget sound, can not fail to be a for- 
midable rival to that city for the Oriental trade. 



WATER FRONT AND HARBOR IMPROVEMENTS. 



Tjj)ETWEEN the harbor of Tacoma as it was in 
Jti/ 1880 and as it is to-day there is as strong a 
contrast as between a wilderness and a wall- 
ed city, and yet the harbor of the city of ten years 
hence will present a still stronger contrast. Along 
the western shore of Commencement bay run the 
numerous tracks of the Northern Pacific, along 
which have been erected costly wharves, ware- 
houses, docks, coal bunkers and numerous other 
commercial facilities. Saw mills have multiplied 
and other factories are being located. On the op- 
posite page is given an engraving of a portion of 
the water front, showing coal bunkers, saw mill 
and other features. Between the row of piles on 
the right of the foreground and the city, which 
lies to the left, is the channel of Puyallup river, 
not accessible to vessels at low tide. Here most 
extensive improvements have been planned, con- 



A sisting of dredging the channel and constructing 

deep water docks along both sides of it. An im- 
mense area of mud flats lies back of the row of 
piling mentioned, which will be cut off from water 
by this work, and rendered available for commer- 
cial purposes. Here will be located factories, ware 
houses and wholesale stores of the future city. A 
mammoth saw mill is already being constructed 
on the flats. By this means large additions will 
be made to the water front, already six miles in 
length, and the docks and channel will pierce the 
heart of the city. Objection has sometimes been 
made to the fact that the harbor is so deep that 
vessels can not anchor neai the docks. There is 
good holding ground farther out in the bay, and 
the docking facilities being provided will remove 
any possible objection. In its harbor Tacoma has 
all that is required by the largest city in the world. 




ALONG THE WATER FRONT-TACOMA. 






GREEN RIVER HOT SPRINGS. 



•*/\NE of the favorite summer resorts of the 
-\Zs northwest is situated on the line of the 
Northern Pacific, sixty-one miles east of Ta- 
coma, in the Cascade mountains. This is the cel- 
ebrated Green River Hot Springs, five in number, 
with a temperature varying from 118° to 122° Fah- 

enheit, which were discovered four years ago. A 
comfortable hotel, with accommodations for a large 
number of people, and ten cottages have already 
been erected. Green River is the most beautiful 
mountain stream in the west, and teems with trout 
and salmon. It derives its name from the green 
hue of its clear, transparent waters, brilliant in 

he sunlight and dark green in the shade. 1 he 
mountains are full of deer, bear, mountain sheep, 
grouse and other game. No shooting is permitted 
within two hundred and fifty yards of the hotel, 
but the hunter and angler has not far to go to find 
employment for his rod and gun. Tourists will 
find this place the most delightful for a few days' 



rest in the whole extent of their journey through 
the west. This has been recognized by hundreds, 
who have availed themselves of the opportunity to 
enjoy the pleasure and sport here afforded. Inva- 
lids, especially, find in the medicinal qualities of 
the water, the pure, bracing atmosphere of the 
mountains, the wholesome food, and the sense of 
rest and freedom from care, just the conditions nec- 
essary for their restoration to health. The waters 
are a specific for rheumatism, catarrh, kidney 
troubles, skin and blood diseases, etc., and their 
virtue is attested by hundreds who have been ben- 
efited by them. A post office and telegraph sta- 
tion have been established at the hotel, and the 
sojourner there need not feel that he is completely 
isolated from the world, while daily trains pass the 
hotel to carry him away in case of urgent need. 
Persons desirous of securing accommodations in 
advance of arrival should address, by mail or tele- 
graph, I. G. McCain & Co., Hot Springs, W. T. 




GREEN RIVER HOT SPRINGS, W.T. 



SCENERY OF PUGET SOUND. 



^7*"ROM a picturesque standpoint, Puget sound 
1 possesses attractions of a high order. Its 
shores, which, in the main, come down in 
bluffy steeps to the very margin of the waters, are 
lined with verdant firs. Here and there the roll- 
ing hills are broken, where some stream pours 
down from the mountains and flows through a fer- 
tile valley, covered with a rank growth of forests 
of cedar, fir, maple, alder, cottonwood and creep- 
ing vines, save where the hand of man has cleared 
a way for the plow, and converted the forest wild 
into green meadows and fields of grain. Back 
from the shores the forests rise in successive ter- 
races as they climb the mountain sides, and soften 
their rugged outlines clear to their summits, save 
where here and there some giant snow peak thrusts 
its hoary head far above the green mantle of the 
mountains, and challenges the traveler's eye from 
whatever direction he may be approaching. On a 



clear, warm, bracing day in early summer time, 
the traveler down the sound has almost constantly 
in view one of these snowy summits. Mount Ta- 
coma to the southeast, Mount Baker to the north- 
east, and the long, serrated ridge of the Olympic 
range to the west, all hold their snowy crowns aloft 
for his inspection. The calm, deep waters of the 
sound, like the bosom of a mountain tarn, reflect 
the sun's rays by day, and by night glisten under 
the shimmering light of the moon. A journey 
down its winding channels, through its narrow 
passages, among its hundreds of islands, past its 
cities, towns and busy mills, the eye constantly 
greeted by new and ever-changing landscapes of 
beauty, is one never to be forgotten by him who 
takes it when a clear sky and full moon combine 
to reveal its beauties both day and night. Taco- 
ma's location renders it the best headquarters for 
tourists while enjoying the beauties of the sound. 




For Information concerning investments 

in Tacoma or Washington Territory, ad- 
dress Allen C. Mason, Real Estate and 

Loan Broker, Mason B I k . , Tacoma, W. T. 






V OF CONGRESS 




017 



